AUTOWEEK. (08:30 Feb. 25, 2003) ‘Car Guy’ Defined By DUTCH MANDEL
THIS FROM AN ASSOCIATE WHO looks at life analytically: What defines a car guy? Specifically, he asks if it’s good to have a car guy running a car business, or do they get too emotionally involved with product to be rational?
Egad!
Okay. Deep breath. Here is the unofficial car guy credo you can hand the next person who should ask: Being a car guy is not an affliction. Being a car guy is a way of life. To become a car guy doesn’t mean you have to fieldstrip an 850-CFM Holley carb, spew automotive trivia or collect cars the way a gourmand eats. Car guys appreciate cars. They enjoy cars. You are a car guy. You understand a car’s intrinsic (and sometimes its Blue Book) value. You talk cars with curiosity and authority and passion. Car guys are all shapes, sizes and genders. I have running commentary with a few restaurateurs, a rock ’n’ roll photographer, several retailers, doctors, lawyers, an Indian shaman, a couple of policemen, some skilled tradesmen, and even the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. These conversations are about cars and life and politics and art and business and society and sport and... cars.
But to the second part of the question: Some of the most successful business guys in the car business are car guys. Are they to be derided, chided and chastised because they have allowed their passion into their workplace? No. Look at (former) BMW and (former) Ford exec Wolfgang Reitzle, VW’s Ferdinand Piech, GM’s Bob Lutz, DaimlerChrysler’s Wolfgang Bernhard, GM’s Darwin Clark, BMW’s Tom Purves, Honda’s Tom Elliott, to name a few. These are exceptional businessmen who love cars.
It is equally true that successful car business guys are successful businessmen first. Renault’s Carlos Ghosn and GM’s Rick Wagoner are perfect examples. Could they be captains of other industries? Yes, and they were. But few industries are as invigorating as is this one.
Papa always said the secret to happiness was to do work you enjoy. Substitute the car passion for another passion and ask if that lifestyle hinders the ability to effectively govern. Of course it doesn’t.
But my friend with the questions also asks about Car Guy Poseurs—those who drape themselves in car stuff just to belong. Is this, he asks, acceptable behavior? Car Guy status is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So long as you enjoy the lifestyle, you are part of the clan. But bet the next quarter’s earnings that—all business talent being equal—it is a better president of Holland & Holland, Ping, Carhartt or TaylorMade who can walk the walk, talk the talk, shoot and make the shot because he or she understands and lives the passion.
You need not sleep with a carton of zymol under your bed for acceptance in the car fraternity. Successful car business people, whether they qualify themselves or not, just know in their own internal-combustion engine that car passion transcends the passion of other consumer products. They know—without a doubt—that the car is not just a tool or commodity.
A car guy or gal looks at life with the car as their lens. They don’t take for granted cars or trucks or sport/utility vehicles, and they don’t deify them, either. They enjoy cars and what they offer and where they take them and the camaraderie they afford.
Those who don’t understand this may never. That’s okay. They will remain the unenlightened.
It could be urban legend, or just adding to the already grand legend of the man, but Bob Lutz was once asked whether he played golf in his free time. “Golf?” he asked. “Why should I chase a little white ball around when I can drive cars fast?”
Why, indeed.
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